Pixel Scroll 7/25/16 The Ants Are My Friends, Scrolling In The Wind

When you play a game, you have to learn some rules, right? Well, same goes for designing a game. And here’s one rule: No idea is too wacky.

Take a game called Unexploded Cow, for instance.

“That’s a game where you’ve discovered two problems with a common solution,” says the game’s co-creator, James Ernest. “There’s mad cows in England and unexploded bombs in the French countryside, and you’re going to bring them together and solve everybody’s problems by blowing up a bunch of cows. ”

Using cows with a debilitating brain disease to get rid of leftover bombs — for most people, that’s just an absurd joke. But Ernest designs board games for a living. He and a colleague took that weird idea and came up with a card game. Each player manages a herd of sick cows and tries to make money blowing them up.

That game, Unexploded Cow, is now one of the most popular he’s created….

Even the book-specific promotional features, such as the NetGalley program, may be of use to game writers who are doing books or stories as well, as is often the case.

SFWA has been working at relationships with a number of companies that will be of interest to game writers. Our Outreach Committee has monthly checkins with representatives at Amazon, Audible, Draft to Digital, Kickstarter, Kobo, Patreon, and more….

Get a written agreement for every transaction, even with people you love and trust. I am still trying to solve feuds stemming from oral agreements for tiny properties that wound up becoming movie/TV franchises.

Don’t ever think, “I don’t want to bother my agent with this trivial matter.” It’s not just that it might be a bigger matter than you realize, but even if it stays small, it may still have to be cleaned up some day. Your agent would rather do the work now than have to deal with a bigger problem later.

SUV: You favorite a third-person present tense which is quite different from the other books in the Star Wars fiction line. Why did you go with that? What are some of the advantages of using this?

CW: On a simple level, what’s great is that Young Adult books tend to take a present tense viewpoint to telling stories. Sometimes first-person, sometimes third-person, but a lot of young adult fiction is written in present tense. For me, a person who likes to write in that already, the great thing is that we’re speaking to young readers and to older readers who are willing to be drawn into the cinematic component. Star Wars begins as film and moves on to TV. To have the books feel exciting in that kind of action-adventure thing, present tense keeps you in the moment. I always say that past tense is like looking at a painting on a wall in a museum, but present tense is like watching the painter paint it. It’s like watching Bob Ross: You see him painting on his half-hour show. You really don’t know what’s going to happen. I love that feeling: What’s he going to paint here? Is that an ocean? Is that a rock? There’s also a component where you think he’s going to mess the painting up completely but by the end he pools it all out. To me, present tense is like watching the painter paint. When you look at the Star Wars crawls, they’re written in third-person, present tense. I want to capture that: I do think that it’s very cinematic, and that’s why we went with it.

Now, there are deconstructions of the genre that take a more cynical view, of course, and it’s possible to tell dark superhero tales where those with power lose their way and take advantage of those around them. Marvel’s superheroes are perhaps more prone to making mistakes, while DC’s might be more prone to growing remote from the concerns of the people they protect, but the end result tends to be similar: things get worse, innocents get hurt, much anguish is had, humanity seeks desperately for someone else to take on the new menace and it’s all terribly bleak…

…but, eventually, things pretty much always get better. It helps that evil is fundamentally punchable, once you figure out who/what needs punching and where the head is. It helps that violence is so often the best answer.

Nak, 13, and Fawkes, 6, have been cosplaying for a little more than a year. They’ve been ambitious. Their social media pages show off more than 50 geeky costumes: Alien, Star Trek, Fallout and Game of Thrones each make an appearance. During the year they’ve been active, they’ve gained a sizable following with nearly 10,000 followers on Twitter and 18,500 on Instagram.

Part 1, last week, examined literature from the 1950s through the 1980s.

1990s

The movement of the Baby Boomer generation into positions of power that began in the 1980s took full flower in the 1990s. This marked a significant shift (but not a real change) in the status quo, and there began the generation of much more ‘product for the marketplace’. Lots of Shuttle stories as we worked through the trauma of Challenger, but also solar power satellite and space station stories. Gen X coded the World Wide Web, while their bosses day-traded their way to enormous prosperity (oh…wait…), and the Millennials were digging Bill Nye the Science Guy. The Soviet Union didn’t so much collapse as dissolve into a new form of corruption and warlord-led tribalism, and this left writers looking for new enemies, from corporate baddies to Asians with cryptic agendas. The Space Shuttle was ramping up its tempo of flights, boldly going where it had gone so many times before, along with operations of Mir and the genesis of ISS.

Fallen Angels, Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle & Michael Flynn (1991): in a future where technology is blamed for the world’s ecological ills, those trapped in orbit in the post-space age must struggle to survive. When a scoop ship is shot down, the race is on by the Fen to rescue the crew and return them to orbit. Don’t know Fen? Then this book is probably not for you. But if you’re a devotee of the science fiction writers cons then this book is entirely for you. [GoodReads: 3.49/1,937] …

There’s just one issue with the current model for social media: it’s purely virtual. The social component has been lost. That means that apart from location data and images and people becoming connected (“friended” or “followed”) or disconnected (“unfriended” or “kicked to the curb”), there’s no way of determining interactions in the real world. The difficulty has always been to integrate physical reality and virtual reality.

Enter augmented reality. Although not a new concept (it’s been used for heads-up displays (HUD) for fighter jets since the 1970s), the smartphone has given it new applications. In Korea a few years back, for example, people could hold a phone camera up and landmarks would be marked on the screen.

Then camePokémon GO.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably know by know that Pokémon GO has become … um … big. Really big. No, I mean huge! And it knows no limits. Players of all ages are collecting ’em all. And they’re changing the face of social media by combining the social with the media.

There are two ways that the game has, well, changed the game. The first is the reintroduction of social interaction. Not only do the catching and training of Pokémon cause interaction between players, but the competition and even the very act of searching for the virtual creatures has created peaceful gatherings that have had the feel of makeshift parties. People are meeting new people and making friends, something that was generally absent from the old flash mobs.

1. Butcher seems to go his own carefree way with many words, heedless of any actual dictionary definitions. So, for example, the characters in this world live in huge circular towers far above the ground, which he calls “spires” — but spires are tapered or pointed, not cylindrical. One of the types of airships that sail between the towers is called a “windlass,” which is actually a “device for raising or hauling objects.” (Yeah, I had to look that one up.) There are neighborhoods in the spires called spirals, which — as you’ve probably guessed by now — consist of streets in perfectly straight lines.

2. Both female leads are forthright, plucky, and kick-ass, to the point where I started confusing one with the other. One is rich and small and the other one isn’t and isn’t, and that’s about the only difference I could find between them….

But all is not lost….

(12) GETTING READY TO VOTE. Lis Carey continues her progression through the Hugo-nominated short fiction at Lis Carey’s Library.

“It’s the most bizarre thing I’ve ever done, and I mean that in the best possible way,” Gay told the New York Times. But “the opportunity to write black women and queer black women into the Marvel universe – there’s no saying no to that.”

Her story, she promised, would be “pretty intimate. There’s going to be all kinds of action, but I’m also really excited to show Ayo and Aneka’s relationship, build on that love story, and also introduce some other members of the Dora Milaje … I love being able to focus on women who are fierce enough to fight but still tender enough to love.”

The recruitment of Gay is part of Marvel’s drive to diversify its offering, both in terms of creators and characters. “So. I am writing a comic book series for Marvel,” Gay tweeted, announcing the news. “Black women are also doing the covers and art … And no. It doesn’t make sense that I am the first, in 2016. But I won’t be the last.” She also tweeted that it was likely to come out in November.

Planing is defined in the dictionary as… I dunno, I haven’t a dictionary handy.

Already we’re off to a disastrous start, highlighting my failings as a planner. Had I planned ahead properly then the dictionary would be in reach. I would have overcome my laziness and inertia and fetched a dictionary from a nearby shelf. I would not have forgotten that I am typing this on a computer connected to the internet which has dictionaries in it. I’m a complete mess.

The ultimate aim of this exercise will be to have two proposals to slide onto the desk of my publisher and turn their eyes to pound signs. One will be for a big scary fantasy MG novel, the other will be for a series of MG books utilising ideas I cut from Cloak. Neither of these may be viable or publishable, but I am going to learn how to plan them and present them.

Nigel adds, “Part 2 should be up next week. I wrote it a few weeks ago and I look back now at few-weeks-ago-me and think, you poor sweet summer child.”

Revealed during a panel at SDCC 2016, as reported by THR, the new season of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (or MST3K) will be broadcast by streaming giant Netflix, with a tentative start date set for (in a reference to the series’ original theme song) “the not-too-distant future.”

Francis Hamit has won the Screenplay category at the 11th Annual Hollywood Book Festival for his soon-to-be-produced script “Christopher Marlowe”. The Elizabethan-era thriller about the poet, playwright and spy has been in development for over six years and is based upon Hamit’s stage play “MARLOWE: An Elizabethan Tragedy”, which was originally presented in Los Angeles in 1988.

It will be directed by Michael John Donahue, DGA, and produced by Gary Kurtz. Negotiations for cast and financing are ongoing.

(19) SOLD TO THE HIGHEST BIDDERS. The Nate Sanders firm completed another auction on July 21.

”Peanuts” comic strip hand-drawn by its creator Charles Schulz, from 9 April 1958. The strip comments on a subject that we think is a modern phenomena, the fact that children can’t concentrate for a long period of time. Here, Schroeder reads that from a book, and Charlie Brown proves its point by watching TV, drawing, playing baseball and paddle ball in the course of four frames. Strip measures 28.75” x 7”. United Feature Syndicate label appears on third frame. Inscribed by Schulz to ”Elizabeth Vaughn and her sixth grade pupils – Charles M Schulz”. Some toning and a light paper backing affixed to verso, overall very good condition.

[Thanks to Nigel Quinlan, Martin Morse Wooster, Dawn Incognito, Cat Eldridge, JJ, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Robert Whitaker Sirignano.]

73 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 7/25/16 The Ants Are My Friends, Scrolling In The Wind”

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Regarding The Aeronaut’s Windlass, I had no problem telling Gwen and Bridget apart. They’re both stereotypes, of course, but I liked them and the novel would probably have been better with more Bridget, Gwen and Rowl (and Benedict) and less Grimm. It would also have been interesting to see how the three young recruits who joined the guard because it’s something you do (Bridget) or because they were looking for adventure (Gwen) react to suddenly find themselves in the middle of a war, fighting for their lives, but that aspect is largely glossed over. There’s a bit of that at the end, when Gwen talks to Grimm about her PTSD, but Bridget who didn’t even want to join the guard in the first place would be much more affected.

As for Folly, I viewed her as an older version Pippi Longstocking rather than Delirium from Sandman, but then I’ve never really gotten into Sandman.

However, I had problems telling Grimm’s crew apart. The executive officer (forgot his name) is pretty much the most cardboad member in a crew of cardboard aeronauts. Mr. Kettle, the saltily swearing helmsman, and Mr. Journeyman, the saltily swearing engineer, are basically the same character, only that one is habitually found above deck and the other below.

Another problem I had is that Grimm is the focus, but he’s also the least interesting character in a cast of stereotypes. Actually, this is a common problem with gruff, but ultimately noble Captain characters, though it’s more common in space opera. These captains work a lot better as supporting characters, e.g. Ashby Santoso in The Long Way to Small, Angry Planet or Captain Caldswell (not so noble, though he has his moments – plus, he’s pretty much a deconstruction of the type) in Rachel Bach’s Paradox trilogy, but they usually make for boring protagonists.

Grimm may captain an airship rather than a spaceship, but he’s definitely that kind of character. I liked him all right for about three quarters of the book, but he’s not really all that interesting (and anything that might make him more interesting is only hinted at). I actually liked his ex, the smuggler captain, a lot better than I ever liked Grimm and wished we would have seen more of her.

Also Grimm sort of lost my sympathy towards the end, when he made a bunch of stupid decisions which didn’t even match the character we’ve spent 300 pages with at that point.

Also am I the only one who got some creepy vibes of the interactions between Grimm and Gwen? I suspect Grimm’s interactions with Gwen were supposed to be of a paternal/mentor sort, similar to his interactions with Bridget and Folly. But somehow, there was a hint of romantic tension there, which is creepy, because Grimm is at least twenty years older than Gwen.

We’ve already talked about the worldbuilding flaws. BTW, Butcher not only has no idea what a windlass is or how airships work, he also has no idea what a shipyard is. Because the “shipyards” destroyed by the Aurorans are really docks.

Sure, it’s the first book in a series, so I don’t expect everything to be resolved, but this book resolves absolutely nothing.

Also, I noticed some – let’s say puppyish – undertones in the novel, almost as if Butcher was pandering to that audience. The way the military or quasi-military characters were portrayed, the fact that no one questions or criticizes Grimm for making dumbass decisions and risking lives for the sake of a morale boosting victory, the contrast between the good free trade Albions and villainous social-democratic welfare state Aurorans, the fact that every woman over sixteen is a villainess, the fact that the good guys are all white pseudo-Anglosaxons and the bad guys are mainly pseudo-Hispanics. Some of these problems pop up in the Dresden Files books as well, but there the first person narration made it easy to dismiss them as Harry Dresden’s hang-ups rather than the author.

I thought it, like The Dark Between the Stars and to a lesser extent The Builders, suffered from what I call “GRRM Syndrome”: eight hundred characters, four thousand chapters of 6 pages each, and — 50 pages in — me still not giving a damn about any of them.

ETA: I actually made it 110 pages into A Crown for Cold Silver before I finally gave up. I figure that far in, if a book still isn’t “doing it” for me, it’s probably never going to happen.

Which is fair. That one does take time to get going and for a while it feels like it’s going in a pretty predicable path, but it goes to great places. But after 100 pages if you don’t care about the characters, it’s hard to invest in the rest. After reading the sequel I’m still not sure where the hell it’s going, only excited that every time I think I know the book is like ‘Nope!’.

I’m fairly certain that these ‘airships’ are not airships, and are not meant to be airships. They are ships that sail in the air. Whether this a good way to design a ship that sails in the air is a question for those with experience of etheric currents.

I’m fairly certain that these ‘airships’ are not airships, and are not meant to be airships. They are ships that sail in the air. Whether this a good way to design a ship that sails in the air is a question for those with experience of etheric currents.

I got that, especially since the descriptions don’t fit in with anything we know about real life airships. However, I still wonder why Butcher used an established term like “airship” to signify something quite different. But then “windlass”, “spire” and “shipyard” have eastablished meanings, too, which Butcher chooses to ignore.

I liked “Crown For Cold Silver” but would certainly put it in the middle of the pack. I’ll probably read the next one, but am not counting the days till.

I too hated haaaated “Barsk”. Love all his other, shorter work and so was looking forward to it. And then there it was, an elephant-sized turd. Pretty sure we’re not meant to hope the hero and everyone he knows dies, and aren’t supposed to cheer for the minions of the Empire; yet there I was. I’d like to see more of the rest of the universe, and leave Barsk to its richly deserved obscurity.

@Tasha: Don’t go back to Babar. I used to but OMG the colonialism just smacked me upside the head and creeped me out last time I did.